This will do the trick. I have only supplied the all important convert function. I leave to you to wrap what ever code you require around it.

use LWP::Simple;

...
sub convert {
    $_=get("http://www.oanda.com/converter/
          classic?value=$amount&exch=$fc&expr=$tc");
   s/^.*<!-- conversion result starts//s;
   s/<!-- conversion result ends.*$//s;
   s/<[^>]+>//g; s/[ \n]+/ /gs;
   print $_, "\n";
}
[download]

mitd - Made in the dark.

Thanks for the snippet, I need to learn me some LWP soon! Thanks again, I will begin work on this project, and let you know if I run into any problems.

Andy Summers

You can use a SOAP service to get the data you need. After a quick Google search, I found a web service to do the work for you. You'll have to have SOAP::Lite installed, though. You can get it from CPAN if you don't. See www.soaplite.com for more info.

Instead of just giving you the exchange rate, however, it gives you a string containing both the exchange rate and the time at which it was valid. You'll have to get the exchange rate off the end of the string. Since you said you wanted to "create a program," I'll leave that part as an exercise for the reader. :-)

You'll want to use the currency codes USD and JPY for US dollars to Japanese yen. See the service home page for more currencies and service specifics.

use SOAP::Lite;

die "gimme some currency codes" unless @ARGV == 2;
my ($from,$to) = @ARGV;

my $rate_str = SOAP::Lite
 ->proxy('http://www.itfinity.net:8080/soap/exrates/default.asp')
 ->endpoint('http://www.itfinity.net:8008/soap/exrates/default.asp')
 ->uri('http://www.itfinity.net/soap/exrates/exrates.xsd')
 ->GetRate(
     SOAP::Data->type('string')->name( fromCurr => $from ),
     SOAP::Data->type('string')->name( ToCurr   => $to   ),
 )
 ->result;

print "$rate_str\n";
[download]

Jasmine

-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important

Having done this for a major internet company, let me tell you while the actual coding of exchange rates is rather straightforward, what exchange rate to use can be a complicated beast.

There is the interbank rate (nothing a joe monk would ever get), a typical credit card rate (normally interbank + 2%), a cash exchange rate (interbank + 4%), etc. Even then, some companies will not change their rates on a daily basis. They normally build in some type of buffer +-2% so their prices/costs don't look so volatile.

I'd recommend checking out the following sites: Oanda (which has a perl client) and Pacific Exchange Rate Service (which is related to the IMF in some manner).